.com with a dash or .ch without? Newbie question

[TomSwiss]

Hi all,

My first post so go easy

I am starting a business that is called say "BusinessName" and I have bought these domains:

BusinessName.ch and Business-Name.com

BusinessName.com is not available, cash parked (I am trying to contact the owner).
BusinessName.co.uk - is soon to become redundant as the guy is selling his house which is essentially the business

This is what I am weighing up after lots of research in various sites and blogs including Google, Matt Cuts, SearchEngineLand etc:

1) Go with BusinessName.ch because it is a business about traveling to Switzerland and therefore the local relevancy might add weight in Google
2) Go with Business-Name.com and don't worry about the dash being difficult to pronounce and remember
3) Ditch the idea and get a new business name

My gut feel is go with .ch because it is better for branding, focus on creating great content and hopefully buy .com and co.uk later (market is UK tourists) and perform a 301 redirect. I have the Facebook and Twitter accounts in BusinessName format.

Would really appreciate your thoughts and thanks in advance for your time.

Tom

p.s.Hopefully posting in the right section and I read the "read before you post" warnings. There ain't so many .ch related posts out there so concerned it is a bit of an internet backwater!

[Xeract]

Interesting question - I'm guessing that as your site is about travelling to Switzerland it's actually targeted at people in other countries? People in Switzerland probably aren't going to be searching for a site about traveling to their own country, so if it were me I'd probably go with the .com.

A .ch domain will rank well for Swiss pepole, but you might have a hard time getting it to rank in google.co.uk (for example).

[TomSwiss]

Thanks for your reply Xeract. Yes targeted mainly at UK residents wanting to come to Switzerland for a holiday so .co.uk ranking will be important.

It's just hard to know how big a grain of salt you need to take with the "content is king" maxim i.e. could I create great content but not get ranked because of TLD choice...

More thoughts very welcome

[Xeract]

Originally Posted by TomSwiss

Thanks for your reply Xeract. Yes targeted mainly at UK residents wanting to come to Switzerland for a holiday so .co.uk ranking will be important.

It's just hard to know how big a grain of salt you need to take with the "content is king" maxim i.e. could I create great content but not get ranked because of TLD choice...

More thoughts very welcome

The TLD will definitely affect your chances of ranking. I don't think I've ever seen a .ch ranking in google.co.uk, and I doubt many .co.uk sites ranking well in google.ch. Not to say it's impossible, just that you're probably going to make it hard for yourself.

If you add your site to GWT you can set the location though, so if you go for the .ch then definitely do that.